Military

Further Reading

101st Commander Calls Adaptability Key to Success in Iraq

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., March 17, 2004 - One year ago today, the 101st Airborne
Division (Air Assault) was at Camp New Jersey, the division's holding area in
Kuwait, awaiting orders to move north and cross into Iraq at the onset of
Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Today, with all members of the division's "Screaming Eagles" back here at their
home post, division commander Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus credited his
soldiers' adaptability to ever-changing situations for ensuring the division's
success in Iraq.

"The one overriding lesson out of all of this is that our flexible, adaptable
soldiers are the key to everything our division and our Army did in Iraq,"
Petraeus said.

Throughout their deployment, Petraeus said, his soldiers continually adjusted
to the situations that confronted them. "The truth is, no one approach or
tactic fits everywhere in Iraq," he said. "Every place is unique, and the
situations are all different. And in fact, there is no one unique tactic or
approach that even works day in and day out in the same location."

Petraeus said that even in Mosul - the division's Iraqi base from April until
last month - his soldiers constantly had to "adapt to the situation, to the
enemy, to the resources that we had available."

But Petraeus said that adaptability demonstrated itself even before the
division had left its home post. He credited his troops with breaking standard
deployment conventions to get 5,000 vehicles, 1,500 shipping containers, 17,000
soldiers and 264 helicopters from Fort Campbell to Kuwait - all within less
than six weeks of receiving a formal deployment order. "They made a Herculean
effort," he said, even physically joining in the ship loading at Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., to speed up the process.

Despite intensive training to prepare the division's leaders for a rapid
deployment and for the vast railhead, port and airfield improvements since
Operation Desert Storm, Petraeus acknowledged the division felt "under the gun"
as it prepared to get its equipment in place and possibly face combat "within a
very, very short timeline."

With the division in theater and the countdown to war continuing, the pressure
intensified, he said. "We had challenges in that our soldiers were still
unloading equipment off ships as elements of the division were getting ready to
go through the berm (into Iraq)," Petraeus said.

Once the war started, he said, his troops used innovative tactics to confront a
variety of different enemies as they moved north - Republic Guard, Saddam
Fedayeen paramilitary group fighters and Baath militia. Much of the fighting
took place in large, urban areas including Najaf, a city of 600,000 people.

"Although we train for this at the Joint Readiness Training Center and home
station, I'll tell you that nothing prepares you to clear a city of 600,000 as
your first combat objective," Petraeus said.

He credits his young leaders and soldiers "at the point of decision" who
"changed the tactics, techniques and procedures to deal with the threat that we
found." Kiowa attack helicopter pilots, for example, flew in front of the U.S.
forces, exhibiting what the general called "courage and initiative."

Similarly, Petraeus said the division's Apache pilots adapted to conduct
daylight reconnaissance operations, supported by Air Force close-air support,
the Army tactical missile system and Air Force jammers, intelligence-gathering
systems and command and control systems. The combination, he said, "proved
very, very effective in finding and then destroying heavy enemy elements that
were on the flank of the 5th Corps advance."

As the division advanced to Baghdad, then Mosul, Petraeus said the 101st
Airborne Division (Air Assault) troops adopted a new role as they began helping
the Iraqis rebuild their country. He admits the soldiers' dual roles as
warfighters and peacekeepers sometimes appeared to be at odds.

"Oftentimes we felt as if our soldiers had a rifle in one hand and a wrench in
the other," Petraeus said. "We were fighting, but we were also rebuilding." He
said the young soldiers who regularly patrolled Mosul and interacted with the
Iraqi people successfully carried out these dual and seemingly conflicting
roles.

"It's an enormous tribute to our young soldiers - the sergeants, lieutenants
and captains who were out there every day, interacting with people all day,
every day, and their ability to adjust to the situation as they find it," he
said.

Now returned with his division to Fort Campbell, Petraeus said the lessons of
Operation Iraqi Freedom validate what his former boss, retired chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry "Hugh" Shelton, used to say: "It's people, not
equipment. It's quality. Not quantity."

Quantity isn't a bad thing, Petraeus said. "What we would like to have is a
huge quantity of very high-quality people with the best equipment money can
buy," he said. "But at the end of the day, what is decisive is the people using
the equipment - high-quality people."

"And that," he said, "is what we were blessed to have (in Iraq)."

Petraeus said he agrees wholeheartedly with Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest
Generation," a book about World War II veterans, who called the men and women
fighting the war on terror "the next greatest generation."

"I've seen our young soldiers endure tremendous hardship, overcome tremendous
challenges, fight a tenacious, determined and even suicidal enemy, and
demonstrate incredible innovativeness and compassion," he said. "It's just
extraordinary."

Now that they're returned to their home station, as their equipment continues
to arrive and before they get back into their full training cycles, Petraeus
said he has one more adaptation to ask of his soldiers.

"What we need do right now is to make sure our soldiers get time with their
families, and enjoy some of the blessings that this country enjoys that they
have been fighting to protect for the past couple of years," he said.